This past weekend on June 16th, 2018, Zagaria Vocal Academy LLC had the pleasure of welcoming percussion teaching maestro, Eric Velez to our studio for a very anticipated master class. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Eric, he has worked and toured with Latin superstar, Marc Anthony for 23 years as well as Jennifer Lopez for 6 years. Furthermore, he has recorded albums with Latin stars like Celia Cruz, Jose Alberto, Eddie Palmieri, Kid Panaram, and Jack Bruce just to name a few. Eric is a Toca signature artist and is also sponsored by Zildjian, Remo, and Vic Firth. His love for the art of Latin percussion was very apparent throughout the entire master class, as he explained the history, evolution, and different rhythms and techniques of each instrument.

Eric Velez Playing With Jennifer Lopez On Tour

The classes took place in the privacy of ZVA’s very own multi million dollar studio in Boca Raton, FL. ZVA held two separate master classes, and each class had two sections, part a and part b. The second master class featured famous guitarist/producer Bruno Alvaranga of Sao Paolo, Brazil jamming several different stylistic improvisations on his acoustic and electric guitars while Eric Velez demonstrated an amazing percussion performance.

Eric Velez With His Toca Signature Series Instruments

Zagaria Vocal Academy is also honored to announce that Eric Velez has agreed to teach exclusively for our academy in person as well as online. Furthermore, Eric has agreed to record session work for hire in our state of the art recording studio. We plan to have more master classes with Eric in the future. If interested please contact our office.

Jeffrey Zagaria With Eric Velez

Not only does ZVA hold awesome master classes with Eric Velez, we offer music, voice, song writing, recording classes, management consults, and a full recording studio filled with the some of the areas best teachers and producers. Zagaria Vocal Academy LLC is the worlds first online music and voice academy. Three years ago, Jeffrey Zagaria opened the new studio location in the beautiful office park at the current 301 Yamato Road location. ZVA is available now both online and in studio at our new Boca location. Zagaria Vocal Academy LLC has been a member of NAMM since 2014, and has been granted the “Best Of 2014, and 2015 awards”.

On episode #79 Bruno Alvaranga and Octavio Vieira were studio guests of host Jeffrey Zagaria. Bruno Alvaranga is a famous guitarist/music producer from Sao Paolo State in Brazil who has produced over one hundred professional CD recordings. Many of his recordings are of famous Brazilian Christian/catholic praise and worship bands. Alvaranga also produces for three major TV broadcasts in Brazil. Furthermore, his production skills have been responsible for the creation of over one hundred professional Brazilian movie trailers. Octavio Vieira is a charismatic prayer group leader at Saint Vincent Catholic Church of Margate Florida. Currently Alvaranga and Vieira team up together with a host of other prayer group members on Monday evenings at their church for praise, worship, word, and prayer. Listen in to this episode to hear testimony of these two Christian men who are prominent in the Brazilian and world community. Bruno brought his guitar along and played live praise while Octavio praised along with his singing. A very special episode from two special people who currently serve the Lord in South Florida.

Praise You Lord is a weekly radio broadcast that can be heard on WPBV 98.3 FM in the Palm Beaches of South Florida. Visit http://www.wpbvradio.com to tune in to the live programs on Saturday’s 6:00 – 7:00 PM, or Sunday’s from 12:00 – 1:00 PM, 6:00 – 7:00 PM

This beautiful summer melody features warm vocal tones and a gorgeous piano accompaniment provided by song producer and vocal mentor, Jeffrey Zagaria.

Mary Koenig sings, “June”, with Jeffrey Zagaria accompanying her on the piano in the studio.

Mary is currently an 18 year old singer-songwriter from Boca Raton, Florida. She plans to attend Florida Atlantic University this coming Fall. Koenig will continue her pursuit of a singer/songwriting career studying music and voice at ZVA and a business degree at FAU.

Mary Koenig performs, “June” at The Sketch Restaurant in London, England on a funky piano.

Koenig receives full credit for the song lyric and shares credit with Zagaria on the original music.

Mary enjoys playing the piano, guitar, and writing poetry on her free time.

Consider listening, liking, commenting, and sharing Mary’s new song “June” on Youtube and Soundcloud. Click below, you won’t be disappointed!

Congratulations to Michael Maroney of Reading, Massachusetts for winning Zagaria Vocal Academy Student Of The Month for April, 2018.

Michael has been an online piano student with Jeffrey Zagaria every week for over five years. Maroney has mastered many piano pieces from different genres over that five year span including “The Entertainer”, the full version of “Fur Elise”, “Clocks” by Cold Play, “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey and many others. Michael has also excelled in his high school and is planning to attend college this fall 2018.

Maroney has been a part of his high school tennis team for the past four years, playing varsity doubles the past three years and is a member of the National Honor Society and Spanish National Honor Society. Michael also volunteers teaching tennis to young kids in the summer.

Right now he plans to go to either UMass Amherst or UConn, and plan to major in the public health field. He is part of the Jimmy Fund Smiles club at my school, which volunteers at various Jimmy Fund events, as well as the Samantha’s Harvest Club, which provides funding to programs that enhance the lives of individuals with Down Syndrome.

We are really exited about Michael’s overall achievements and are proud to award him the ZVA Student of The Month Award for April 2018.

Zagaria Vocal Academy client, Marco Griesi officially released his first single called “Back” late this week on his birthday, March 15, 2018.

Marco’s first release was produced by internationally acclaimed and multi platinum award winner, Debbie Gibson. Griesi and Gibson collaborated and agreed to a one song publishing contract for Marco’s original song “Back”.

Marco Griesi is currently an eighteen year old singer-songwriter guitarist from Boca Raton, FL.

Marco enjoys playing, writing and singing music and is also a competitive surfer.

Click on the link to his new video below to listen to Marco’s new song entitled, “Back”.

Congratulations to Marco Griesi from Zagaria Vocal Academy! We suggest you click on the link above, like and follow Marco’s Youtube page. We look forward to hearing and seeing more from this outstanding new talent!

Singer-Songwriter Mary Koenig is Zagaria Vocal Academy’s Student Of The Month January 2018.

Congratulations belong to Mary Koenig, Zagaria Vocal and Music Academy’s “Student of The Month of January, 2018”. Koenig is a senior at Boca Raton Community High School in Boca Raton, FL.

Mary recently recorded and mixed her first original song, “Love Hesitation” at Zagaria Vocal Academy’s recording studio under the direction of Jeffrey Zagaria. Her new song, ”Love Hesitation” was recently registered at the U.S. Copyright Office.

Mary Koenig working on her new song, “Love Hesitation” at Zagaria Vocal Academy Studio in Boca Raton, Florida.

Koenig began studying voice with Jeffrey Zagaria in January of 2016. Since then, Mary’s voice has greatly improved in many vocal metrics including range, tone, breathing, stamina, pitch, and artistic expressiveness. She has focused on building her voice and finding her own natural singing style.

Mary auditioned for a singing position in her church choir. In a short time, she began singing solos due to her performance excellence. Now, one can find Mary regularly singing on Sundays at her church as a regularly featured soloist. Furthermore, she began writing songs under the tutelage of Zagaria. After writing and rewriting “Love Hesitation”, and other original songs, Mary has finalized her first release on January 21, 2018.

Mary Koenig playing the piano to her new song “Love Hesitation” at Zagaria Vocal Academy Studios, in Boca Raton, FL

Mary’s voice continues to impress as she has been working diligently for two years with Zagaria on her vocal studies.

Mary Koenig has has been practicing her vocal technique in the studio. Her first demo is delighting listeners with her unique voice and style.

Mary’s plans include pursuing her singing and songwriting career beyond high school. She plans to attend Florida Atlantic University in the Fall of 2018. She is an AP student and has maintained an impressive 3.69 GPA and 4.9 HPA throughout high school. Mary has been very active in extracurricular activities including volunteer work, working as a hostess for local eateries, and being captain of her high school volleyball team two years in a row.

Mary Koenig can be heard on her social media links found below this article.

You can check out Mary’s new song, “Love Hesitation” on Soundcloud and Youtube.

Congratulations belongs to Nicole Knorr, Zagaria Vocal and Music Academy’s “Student Of The Month of October 2016”. Knorr was recently accepted at University Of Northern Florida’s School Of Music. She plans to study a dual major of voice and piano. Nicole has been working with Jeffrey Zagaria at Zagaria Vocal Academy LLC since she was a young teenager. Currently she is a senior in high school with an enormous resume filled with many awards and honors. Knorr has been chosen for the ZVA award due to her continued dedication to her vocal and musical studies. Nicole studies have included singing lessons, vocal performance lessons, mixed voice and classical vocal training, music theory, piano, song writing, music composition and scoring.
Nicole Knorr has an extensive resume including All State Chorus, Broward All County Honors Chorus, several “Superiors” ranking for vocals, several “Superiors” ranking for Piano, as well as Superior Plus awards, as well as many “Excellent” rankings over her high school career. Her extensive award resume is printed below this article. She currently attends school at Monarch High School, Coconut Creek, FL.
Nicole has collected many accolades, and it has been difficult to determine which month to award her the ZVA’s Student Of The Month Award. This month became a milestone as Norr was accepted into UNF. She also completed her first writing and scoring of a classical piece with direction from Zagaria. Furthermore, Nicole continues receiving team teaching within the ZVA with master teacher Jillienne Cherie Davis, who has worked with Nicole for the last few years on vocal performance online using Skype. Zagaria currently instructs Knorr in ZVA Boca Raton studios and online on vocal technique as well as music theory and composition.